There are important differences as regards the morphology and finish of the animals of one and the same species. It is therefore appropriate, after the animals have been slaughtered, to carry out classification of the carcasses in order to determine, as a function of the quality of each of them, on the one hand, the price which will be paid therefor to the rearer upstream and, on the other hand, the use which will be made thereof, downstream.
Classification comes into play at the end of the slaughterhouse lines, that is to say after evisceration and dressing of the animals, on whole carcasses (calves, sheep) or on sides of meat (large cattle, hogs) hanging from a slaughterhouse line advancing continuously or stepwise.
In the case of large cattle, two independent criteria have been adopted in order to carry out classification of the carcasses: conformation and finish. A communal descriptive scorecard, based on the visual appreciation of these two criteria has been officially recognized particularly by the EEC regulations of 28 Apr. 1981 and 12 Oct. 1981.
Conformation takes account of the quality of meat present on the carcass, as a function of the dimensions of the latter. The conformation is determined by the appreciation of the shapes and thicknesses of muscles. Five classes have been defined, each being characterized by one of the letters of the word EUROP. The quality of the conformation decreases from the class E, which corresponds to a carcass of excellent conformation with convex profiles and excellent muscle development, right down to the class P which corresponds to a mediocre conformation, with concave profiles and very little muscle development.
The finish can be appreciated by examining the external covering fat and the fat present on the internal face of the sides of meat inside the rib cage. Five classes have been defined, each being characterized by a numeral from 1 for a "very thin" fat cover, to 5 for a "very thick" fat cover.
Each class of conformation and of finish may be subdivided into 3 sub-classes (+, =, -) in order to improve the accuracy of the classification.